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Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Stuffed baked tomatoes filled with seasoned bread crumbs, cabbage, onion, celery, cream, and egg, baked until firm.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and celery are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Stuffed Baked Tomatoes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Select even-sized tomatoes and do not remove the skin.

Fill and bake

  1. Stuff the tomatoes with seasoned bread crumbs, chopped cabbage, onion, and celery.

  2. Moisten the mixture with cream and beaten egg, then season with pepper and salt.

  3. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the tomatoes are firm.

  4. Serve hot on a lettuce leaf.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Tomato + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Cabbage + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Cabbage + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,840 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tomatoes
Hold the filling as the shell, and their skin keeps the shape while they bake.
Seasoned bread crumbs
Absorb the cream and egg moisture so the filling holds together rather than running out.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness to the filling, keeping it soft during baking.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling as it heats, helping it set into a cohesive mass.

The step that matters

Moisten the mixture with cream and beaten egg. The bread crumbs need enough liquid to soften and bind, but too much will make the filling loose and watery. Mix until just evenly damp, then season.

Swap the cabbage

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, bread, onion, celery, cream, egg, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Cabbagethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, bread, onion, celery, cream, egg, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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